Three Minute Leadership: Thinking Like a Dandelion
Posted by: Michael M. Reuter on
12/13/2009
To: The Great leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning
Great leaders are continuously looking for new ways to grow. They are always asking: How can I be most effective in realizing my fullest potential? What strategy will enable me to get the broadest exposure to opportunities that will challenge and stretch me to find even more of my capabilities? To answer these questions, consider the following thought in Chris Anderson’s book, Free:
“Imagine a desert with two pools of water separated by some distance. If you're a plant growing next to one of those pools, you can follow one of two different reproductive strategies. You can drop seeds near your roots, where there's a pretty good chance they'll find water. This is safe but soon leads to crowding. Or you can toss the seeds to the wind and let them float far away. This means that almost all will die, but it's the only way to find that second pool of water, where life can expand into a new niche, perhaps a richer one. The way to get from what the mathematicians call a local maximum to the global maximum is to explore a lot of fruitless minima along the way.”
Cory Doctorow, a Canadian journalist and science fiction author, calls this “thinking like a dandelion.” The dandelion isn’t concerned about disposition of the seeds and where they land. Rather, “the dandelion just wants to be sure that every single opportunity for reproduction is exploited!” If we have this mindset, we open ourselves up to a world of infinite possibilities. We dare to step outside of the security of our own known environment. We dare to go into the unknown. We dare to change.
Think like a dandelion! Cast your ideas and yourself to the winds. Exploit every opportunity growth. Let your seeds spread wide and far, that they might germinate and change you, others and potentially the world forever. And have fun doing it!
Have a beautiful day and an incredibly beautiful week!!!
Mike
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